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A woman with stage 4 colon cancer has had her universal credit payments stopped and is at risk of losing her home after she fell ill while visiting family abroad to tell them about her diagnosis.
Ana Paula Cabral, 65, who moved to the UK from Portugal eight years ago, started receiving universal credit (UC) in July as she was unable to work after her cancer diagnosis, which required extensive chemotherapy.
Her payments were abruptly stopped in September after she fell seriously ill while in Portugal, with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) saying she was no longer eligible as she had been out of the country for more than a month.
With no income, Cabral said she feared she would lose her London home as she was unable to pay her rent and bills, and may also lose her job at a nearby homewares shop.
“I’m supposed to pay the rent and all my bills but I am not going to be able to pay. I’m really broke,” she said. “With this decision about my universal credit, I’m on the brink of losing my flat. I have a dignified life with a small apartment with my little things, it’s my comfort. And I’m on the brink of losing all this because if I don’t pay the rent, I’ll be kicked out.
“I’m so very disappointed because I was so happy in the UK. I have never asked for any help, only now because I have cancer and I need it. I have never even taken a sick day in the eight years I have worked there.”
Cabral said she consulted with doctors at Guy’s hospital in London and was given the go-ahead to travel to Portugal on 2 August to tell her family members, including her children, about her condition.
“I asked permission from my cancer team if I could come to Portugal to tell my family, because this is the kind of news you don’t say by phone,” she said. “The plan was I come, I tell them, I go back and I continue the [chemotherapy] treatment.”
However, after arriving in Portugal she fell seriously ill with a blood infection, and was taken to hospital by ambulance where she underwent two operations.
She was advised that she was not yet fit enough to fly back to the UK, where she was scheduled to continue her chemotherapy treatment, and doctors in Portugal and the UK jointly decided she should continue her cancer treatment for three months over there.
In September, Cabral’s universal credit payments were stopped as she had failed to return to the UK within a month.
Cabral appealed against the decision, with supporting evidence from her doctors in both the UK and Portugal explaining her situation, but the decision was upheld as the DWP said that because she did not travel to Portugal specifically for medical treatment, she was not eligible for an exemption.
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“I received a letter [from the DWP] last week saying the main reason was because I was on holiday in Portugal. That I was here and I didn’t go back. And because the reason I came to Portugal was not for [medical] treatment,” Cabral said.
“Of course not. I was supposed to come and go back. The problem was that I had a horrible infection and I had to go to the hospital otherwise I would die. And with the permission of Guy’s hospital I stayed so as not to postpone my chemo and make my sickness worse.”
Under universal credit rules, people abroad can still continue receiving payments for up to six months if they travelled for medical treatment, or for a period of recovery after treatment in England, Scotland and Wales.
Cabral’s appeal decision stated: “I acknowledge that you are having medical treatment in Lisbon that was not expected, however for a disregard to apply due to having medical treatment, the absence from GB must be solely in connection with you getting the medical treatment.
“You have advised you didn’t leave GB to get the medical treatment, you left to visit family and then your circumstances changed. Therefore, the absence cannot be disregarded for this reason.”
The DWP has been contacted for comment.
